Venezuela

La Vinotinto arrive at every tournament still chasing a first World Cup finals appearance and a first Copa América title. Venezuela reached the semi-finals of the 2024 Copa América before losing to Uruguay and finishing fourth after a defeat by Colombia in the third-place match.

Rafael Esquivel, its president for years, was arrested in 2015 as part of the FIFA corruption investigation, and Jorge Giménez took over what followed: new headquarters opened in Caracas in 2025, along with training centres such as the one in Yara and a national high-performance facility planned for the capital.

What changed the team on the pitch traces back further, to the 2017 Under-20 World Cup, where Venezuela reached the final. Josef Martínez finished that tournament as top scorer and has since become Venezuela's all-time leading marksman with 50 goals for the senior side.

The burgundy shirt dates to 1938, when the Venezuelan National Guard supplied the kit for the Bolivarian Games in Bogotá, and the colour gave the team its nickname before it had much of a footballing identity to go with it. Matches against Colombia carry the weight of a border rivalry, known as the Clásico de la Frontera.